184 THE HISTORY OF THE PENINSULA. 
their tales have historical sequence, though they will add they 
have lost the links or forgotten how the sequence should run. 
It is hopeless probably ever to connect the threads. Can the 
disconnected tangled threads lead us anywhere ? 
In the first place, it is hardly likely to be questioned that 
Malay folk-tales recount the adventures of Malay heroes ; they 
may appear under names more like those of Batak folk a the 
present day ; a princess will be “Bunga Sa-Kuntum,’ a prince 
‘Helang Laut,’ a warrior Awang Selampit’ from his short 
skirt or ‘Trong Pipit’ from his diminutive size; that, of 
course, is what we shall look in pre-Muhammadan tales. 
The heroes may intermarry with ‘ Batins’ and aboriginal 
tribes. That it what we know actually to have happened. 
Still, the tales will undoubtedly paint the adventures of Malay 
chiefs the leaders of Malay settlers. Again the age of the 
tales is indisputable. They ante-date Muhammadan influence ; 
at bottom though accretions from the Hindu cosmogony and 
late historical incident have often crept in, they are early 
Malayan full of primitive custom. They find a parallel in the 
pawang sayings, which they resemble in metrical form and 
sometimes in actual phrase ; those sayings of which Mr. Skeat 
has given us so fine a collection. The early history of Malacca 
is recorded in Annals tinged with Persian literary influence ; 
the story of its great hero Hang Tuah in historical prose. 
The story of the old-world kingdom of Bruas, (though it still 
survives also asa rhapsodist’s tale), commanded sufficient 
interest in historical times to be written down centuries ago in 
conventional Hindu hikayat form under the grandiloquent 
name Shamsu’l-barain’”’. So, too the history of Kedah. It is 
easy to see that stories which have escaped such treatment 
must have dealt with settlements very early very insignificant 
perhaps and certainly long since decayed. 
Have we evidence, that any of the tales really deal with 
places in the peninsula? There would seem to be little ground 
for doubt. In his chapter or  Harly Civilization” in the 
peninsula, Mr. Wilkinson alludes to the remains near Pangkalan 
Kempas on the Linggi river, remains so fragmentary that they 
Jour. Straits Branch 
